


Happy Birthday Donald, Happy Birthday Della

by Tears_Scars_and_Heartstrings



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Birthday, Family, Fluff, Gen, I Tried, Memories, Mild Hurt/Comfort, No Romance, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24652372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tears_Scars_and_Heartstrings/pseuds/Tears_Scars_and_Heartstrings
Summary: A birthday fic for the Duck twins. It's their first birthday back together. Donald doesn't have a gift for his sister and feels terrible about it. Then an idea comes to mind.(Apologies for the terrible summary)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 50





	Happy Birthday Donald, Happy Birthday Della

Donald Duck was sitting out under the stars on the roof of his houseboat sipping his hot chocolate. It's warmth was comforting. Waiting patiently. The night was warm. The wind was light, it rocked the houseboat very softly. It was also comforting to him. For the unlucky duck, this night was incredibly comfortable. It was like for once the universe decided to take it easy on him. Maybe it was because it was his birthday. Well actually more than just his birthday. After all being twins meant it was her birthday too.

"Hey Donnie," came a voice behind him. He smiled contently. There she was. Della Duck. His twin sister. She smiled at him and he returned it.

Della sat wordlessly beside him. He reached for the steaming cup beside him and held it out for her. It was accepted graciously. Hot chocolate was drank quietly between the twins. Della's eyes looked down at the water. Donald's looked up to the moon. The silence was quiet and comfortable. He was thankful for it. They let it linger for quite some time.

There was so much Donald wanted to say and do for his sister but for the moment he tried to push the thoughts away. Savor this moment. You don't get many of them. 

But the duck could never go long before his thoughts filled his head again. This time his guilt. He didn't have a gift for Della since he had completely forgotten that their birthday was coming up. He hoped she wouldn't be too offended by that. He watched her for a moment as she watched the gentle waves that barely kissed the sides of the boat. His eyes went back to the moon. How many times had he cried under its light, not knowing she was there? Too many times. But now she was back and yet they hardly saw each other. Spent almost no time together. And he didn't have a gift for her. Her first birthday back and he had nothing for her! Agh! Granted, Della was always hard to shop for. She was so...Della. She wasn't like anyone else Donald knew aside from Scrooge. But still he always found something for her right? Evidently not this year. And then not to mention what on Earth do you give that makes up for 10 lost years of birthdays?!

He felt like the worst brother ever. When he couldn't hold his guilt in anymore, Donald spoke.

"I'm sorry Della. I don't have anything special for your birthday. I just...I don't know. I stopped celebrating our birthday after you got lost. It just...hurt too much you know? And now you're back but I wasn't ready for it. Some brother I am," he said sadly. Della wrapped an arm around her brother's shoulder.

"Donald, please. I'm the one who's sorry. Sorry I ever stepped foot on that stupid rocket. Sorry I ever left you all. I'm sorry that I hurt you. And I'm gonna be sorry for the rest of my life for it." She grew quiet. Her heart was pounding in a painful way.

And I gotta be honest Don, I wasn't ready for today either. I don't have anything for you either. So yeah...some sister I am."

"Having you home is the greatest present I could ever wish for," Donald said as he wrapped his arms around her side.

"Took 10 years for it to come true but better late than never," she chuckled. Their empty cups sat to the side now cold from emptiness but for what felt like the first time in eternity, their hearts felt warm and full. They rest their heads against each other.

"Besides Donald, you've given me a pretty great gift every year believe it or not." She said softly.

"What's that?"

"You've been a pretty good parent to my boys..." Her free hand came to her face to wipe a tear from eyes. "You know I just...I was so convinced I'd come home to my family all together safe and happy. It never even occured to me that anything could have happened. Their eggs could have not hatched. They could have died at literally any point. You could have chosen to just leave them with social services, having them grow up in strangers homes, maybe even be separated from one another..." She choked on that last sentence. Donald rubbed her side gently as she tried not to cry over the what ifs. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Once she regained control she looked her brother in the eyes. "I know it wasn't easy for you to step up like you did. But you did. And because of that I got to come home to three wonderful boys. That's a pretty great gift. One I can't ever repay you for." Her eyes glistened, tears threatening to spill over again. For a long moment Donald didn't speak only matching her gaze. His other arm reached over to pull her into a full, tight hug. Wordlessly Della wrapped her arms around him too. His strong arms held her tight enough to keep her close without hurting her. It was perfect. She clung tightly trying to match his grip. Della criticized herself internally that they didn't hold each other like this when they first reunited on that island. Stupid Duck temper. Unbeknownst to her, Donald was criticizing himself for the same reason.

"You know you gave me a good gift too," Donald softly spoke. The two dropped their hug.

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" She asked.

"The boys." He looked down suddenly looking quite embarrassed. "I know I have issues. I know I'm still a major mess. I have a long way to go. But having the boys...they saved me. In wanting to take care of them, it forced me to take care of me. I finally acknowledged I have issues. I started going to therapy. And even when I had to stop cause I couldn't afford it anymore, they were still my motivation to keep going and keep improving myself as I could. I was so angry and depressed that without the boys..." It was Donald's turn to choke on his words. He closed his eyes and hung his head. Della gently tapped under his chin encouraging him to look at her. His glassy eyes met hers. It drew a sigh from him.

"I might not have been here for your return without the kids. Everything just...hurt too much," he confessed. Her heart made a painful pump at that confession. She understood his implication and scooped him back into her arms. He chuckled a little in a self depreciatedly manner.

"I love you bro. And I promise... we're gonna never ever spend another birthday or Christmas apart again." He smiled at that, a tear slipped out his eye.

"I'd like that very much," he said as he hugged her back. As they held each other for the second time, an idea came to Donald's mind.

"Actually Della... there's been something I've been meaning to show you. It's inside the houseboat," he said. He begun to climb off the roof.

"Oh...okay then," she said as she followed him inside.

Donald has quite a few books along his shelves. What can he say he liked reading. Somewhere among these was the one he was looking for....ah ha! He found it. He pulled out a large yellow book and sat down, encouraging Della to sit beside him. She looked at him with some confusion but did so.

"This is the boys' baby book," he explained, running his fingers over the yellow cover. The center of the cover depicted a cracked open egg with room for a picture where the egg opened up. A color picture of the three newly hatched boys was placed inside.

"There's Huey crying, that's Dewey smiling, and Louie is sleeping," Donald chuckled pointing out the picture. Della's eyes started to water. He begun to take her through the journey recorded in this baby book. He recorded the day the boys hatched. The times. Huey being first with the cleanest hatch of the three, Dewey following shortly after with the quickest hatch getting eggshell pieces everywhere, Louie taking his sweet time with the longest hatch. The day had been cloudy and it seemed ready to rain until after they hatched. Then suddenly the sun burst forth, bright and brilliant. A light literally shining through into his life, just like these boys. He kept their first tooth lost and their loose feathers from their first preening. He kept records of their habits, favorites, and many firsts. Huey was the one who slept the best while Dewey slept the worst. Louie took the most naps. Huey started walking first. Dewey was the longest to ween off of formula and start on food. Louie smiled at strangers the most. Louie liked playing with stuffed animals most. Dewey liked playing with cars most. Huey liked blocks and puzzles most. Huey's first word was "Baba" the nickname for a toy bear he had at the time that he always wanted to have nearby. Dewey's was "Up" as he encouraged his uncle to lift him up high. Louie's first word was "Unca" as in Uncle Donald. On and on every little detail Donald was able to record, surrounded by tons of pictures of the triplets. Dewey learned how to swim first. Huey was the most scared to learn to swim. Huey however was the first to learn to ride a bike without training wheels. 

Donald began to pull more photo albums out. The two moved to the floor, photos spread out all around them. Assignments from the boys' schoolwork that Donald had kept also piled around them. Drawings the kids had made. Reports they got good grades on. Louie kept several pet fish alive and well for quite some times. There was a nice picture of him smiling into his tank. Huey and Louie joined a school book club. Some of their reports were kept. Dewey joined soccer. His ribbon he earned and many pictures of him and his team graced the pages. Huey joined the Woodchucks. His smile in his pictures of his first day was beaming brilliantly. Their report cards showed consistently good grades for the most part. The many, many pictures of the kids, most of them smiling or groaning in embarrassment at Uncle Donald.

Della couldn't help but cry. She was so sad that she missed so much. However there was tears of happiness shed. Yes it was hard on Donald to provide for the boys but from what she could see, they lived a good life with what they did have. She nuzzled her head into his shoulder. He rubbed her back with the arm he had around her.

"This is the best present ever Donald...thank you," she said softly.

"You're welcome Della," he replied. They continued to get lost in the memories of the photos when an idea came to Della.

"You know Donald, I think I might have a present for you after all. It's probably not nearly as exciting as all this but I think you'll like it. Stay here, I'll be back!" She declared as she jumped up and ran back to the mansion. Donald laughed with happiness, it was so good to have her back. He worked on cleaning the memories up as to keep them safe. Some time had passed, he didn't know how much but soon enough he did hear Della come stomping back onto the boat.

"You've got a computer right?"

"Uhhh yeah but uh I warn ya. It's ancient," Donald gestured to the old laptop sitting on his desk. "I really only use it for job searching."

"As long as it can play videos," she said. He booted it up and she handed him a flashdrive.

"Gyro was able to recover most of my transmissions thanks to the wreckage from the Spear of Selene... everything he could recover is right here. There's a lot of me at my strongest moments while out there and even more at my weakest moments. I'm not gonna make you watch any of it that you don't want to of course but I just thought maybe...I don't know maybe you'd wanna hear my thoughts throughout the years." She shrugged casually. Gosh this felt so lame compared to the gift he had for her. But it was what she had. She wasn't expecting his smile as he took the flash drive from her.

"I'm gonna watch every minute of it," he said. For some reason that warmed her heart. She went to speak but out came a yawn. He chuckled at her.

"Past somebody's bed time," he lightly teased.

"Hey don't blame me. It's after 2 am," she protested.

"It's only 2 am?" He asked. She rolled her eyes. She forgot Donald wasn't exactly friends with sleep.

"Why don't you go ahead and go to bed sis? Technically our birthday is over now. You don't need to stay up and watch these with me."

"But I want to," she argued, failing to hold back another yawn as she spoke.

"Shush. You go to bed. I'm not tired yet so I'm gonna watch these until I am," he said. She tried to protest again but she could only yawn.

"Guess you're right," she admitted. "Hey um... actually...do you have a second hammock?"

"I should. Why do you ask?"

"Well um I mean if it's okay with you I wanna stay with you tonight," she did sheepishly. That brought another smile to his face.

"Yeah. Of course you can Della. You're always welcome here you know," he added softly. "Now where did I put that spare hammock?"

After some time of searching and Donald getting briefly buried under a pile of stuff he had stored in a closet, Donald finally had the extra hammock and thankfully got it set up easily and quickly. He helped Della climb in and got her an extra blanket then dimmed the lights. He turned back to her afterwards.

"You all good?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'm great actually. And tired," she added with another yawn.

"Yeah. Okay then. Goodnight Della."

"Goodnight Donald," she said as closed her eyes. She threw them back open and reached for his hand as he started to walk away. "Happy birthday Donald."

"Happy birthday to you too Della. Now sleep," he told her.

"Aye aye sir," she said and finally settled in to sleep. He walked back into the next room as to not disturb Della and plugged in her flashdrive. The files pulled up and there was quite a lot of them. And that's just what Gyro could recover. Some were lost, only the rocks of the moon knowing whatever her missing words were. He clicked on the first video.

In her first video he saw her bravery. Her determination. Her good old fashioned grit. Even in her impossible circumstances and having lost her leg, she wasn't afraid. After all that just wasn't the Della way! She was going to get home to her family! 

On the 5th video is when he saw her vulnerability. When he saw her admit for the first time that she was scared. Was she going to let that stop her though? No way! Nothing can stop Della Duck!

He watched her videos late into the early hours of the morning. He didn't stop or even keep track of the time. He thought at some point he'd be tired but the more he watched the more awake he felt. He didn't want to miss a moment of anything she said. She talked about the rocks on the moon the way a geologist would.

_"Better put some of that junior Woodchuck geology badge to good use!"_

She talked about the stars she could see from the moon. Or at least the ones she was able to identify. About what being on the moon during a lunar eclipse was like. She complained about Gyro's awful oxy chew but it kept her alive at least. She raged about the unfairness of the situation. She cried at her own stupidity for ever getting on they rocket. She laughed at the good times that she might never even experience. She missed her family. She misses her friends. She tried to reach out to Selene the moon goddess but for some reason couldn't reach the deity. She made plans for the things she'd do if she got back. She made promises she didn't know if she'd ever get to keep.

But most of all she talked about the family. She spoke directly to the kids the most. Telling them stories from her travels. About who she was. About who she hopes they turn out to be. _Remember to eat your vegetables and brush your teeth. Remember it's only trouble if you get caught!_

She spoke to Scrooge. She apologized for stealing the Spear. She confessed trouble she'd made but always hid from him. She promised the rest of her life to making this up to him. She longed to hear the comforting sound of his Scottish voice and even the taste of weak nutmeg tea.

And she spoke to Donald. She asked him how he was doing? How was he coping? She'd give anything to see him again even if she had to be on the receiving end of one of his violent tempers. She begged him to take care of boys. _Please please don't let them think I don't love them! I screwed up in a big way but it was for them! I never meant to leave them!_ She confessed she missed his hugs. The way he used to cling to her when they were young and Donald was not yet very brave. When he looked up to her for protection, before he became the one who was a protector. She even spoke about their parents. _I miss mom and dad right now. I wish I could see them one last time. Hey, remember that one time with mom and dad, hey do you remember the time mom and dad told us about..._ She spoke of wondering and hoping for what the life he was living.

_"I feel a little torn. On the one hand I hope you've gotten married and started your own family already. On the other hand I hope not yet so I can be there for every moment. Besides I gotta warn whoev_ _er you start gett_ _ing close with that if they ever hurt you I'll rip them from limb to limb. Nah I'm just kidding. Well_ _. For now."_

Donald could see in some places where clearly multiple files were missing as Della would look different than she had. She'd reference stories that weren't fully there.

_"So where were we kids? Ooh I know, I was telli_ _ng you boys about the time your Uncle_ _Scrooge, Uncle Dona_ _ld, and I fought off a Griffen! Hey fun fact about_ _Griffens_ _! They have spider breath! Liter_ _ally! They spit out thousan_ _ds of spiders out of their beaks! De_ _finitely pack your bug spray if you're going up again_ _st one!"_

At some point Della stirred in her sleep and ended up waking up slightly. She groaned. Not quite able to fall back asleep, she decided to get up and stretch her legs, maybe get a drink of water. When she walked into the next room and saw Donald still sitting at his computer.

_"Today is, by my estimate, June 9th. The fourth June 9th that's passed since I crashed...4 birthda_ _ys I've missed alre_ _ady. Hey Donald, I hope you're celebrati_ _ng. Maybe you're out with Jose and_ _Panchito, drinking up and dancing, heh that sounds like so much fun. Or maybe you and Uncle_ _Scrooge are up to some adven_ _ture. Maybe you_ _'re out celeb_ _rating with someo_ _ne special. Whatever you're doing I hope you're happy right now....sorry I don't mean to be so down_ _. This is a happy day! Well I choose to beli_ _eve it's so!_ _Soooo_ _! Happy birth_ _day to us! Happy bir_ _thday to us! Happy bir_ _thday dear Donald and Della that's meee, happy bir_ _thday to us!_ _Woo-hoo_ _!"_

"Donald I can't believe you're still up," Della said, startling him. He squawked and paused the video, whipping around to face Della.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" He asked.

"Nooo, what are YOU doing up!? It's almost 7 am!" Della cried. Donald rubbed his dry eyes, finally acknowledging the little bit of tired that started to creep up on him.

"Guess I just lost track of time a little..." He shrugged. A yawn escaped his break.

"Come on Donald, to bed," she said holding her hand out to him. He reached out and grabbed it but instead he pulled her in to a hug.

"Donnie come on," she groaned into his chest.

"You said you missed my hugs. In one of your videos. So now you're getting as many of them as I can give you," he whispered.

"Awww noooo mushy emotions! Donnie!" She protested. She completely forgot there was probably plenty of dark Della secrets spoken among those videos. Total blackmail material. And he's already found one piece. Great. He held her tighter as she resisted. She smacked him playfully until she finally relented and dropped easily into his arms.

"This stays our little secret," she grumbled into his chest.

"Fair enough," he replied. For a moment he was quiet before speaking back up. "Della? You know, your videos are a pretty good gift too."

That drew a smile on her face. "You think so?" She asked. 

"I know so. I've missed you so much." 

As she stayed there listening to his heart beat she thought back to a promise once made but failed to keep.

"Hey Donald...I know we didn't exactly do good on our promise to never spend another Christmas apart but...I promise you that we're never going to spend another birthday apart." 

"I promise that too Della. From now on we'll always be together on our birthday."

She pulled herself out of his grip and smiled at him. His smile matched hers. Somehow, someway, this time it felt different. Like maybe this promise just might be one they could actually keep.

"Alright come on. To bed sleepy head," she encouraged. This time he didn't argue. Instead he nodded in agreement. She got into her hammock and he got into his.

"Goodnight Donald."

"Goodnight Della."

"Happy birthday Donald."

"That was yesterday silly."

"I know but I just felt like saying it."

He chuckled at her words.

"Happy birthday to you too Della."

And soon the twins settled into an easy, comfortable sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading this! I hope everyone enjoyed this! I was trying so hard to have this done and ready yesterday but that clearly didn't happen. Short must not be in my vocabulary cause I was all I'll just make a short little birthday fic and then 12+ hours later, 3 complete rewrittes, 2 total freak outs over how to make the words do the Thing, and a partridge in a pear tree later, it's done! Kudos and comments are wildly appreciated! Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Also kudos to you if you caught my little reference to another very excellent Disney show, The Owl House!


End file.
